Cayón Gallery is pleased to present Painted/Unpainted, the first exhibition at the gallery by British artist Alan Charlton (Sheffield, 1948), featuring his most recent works, which continue his use of grey as a unifying element.
Charlton, known for his minimalist work, has often described himself throughout his career simply as “an artist who decides to make a painting.” For him, his work serves no other purpose than to be painting, and his role is simply to produce it—asserting that the artist’s work is just another profession within our society. He uses the color grey because it represents the industrial and the urban, seeking to make each artwork both simple and absolute.
Alan Charlton studied at London’s Camberwell School of Art from 1966 to 1969, and it was during his time there that he began experimenting with industrial materials, modular formats, and grey paint.
His work has gained recognition since the 1970s and is held in numerous major museums and collections, including the Arts Council Collection (London, UK), the “La Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection (Barcelona), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), MAM Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France), the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Turin, Italy), Museum Abteiberg (Mönchengladbach, Germany), MuHKA Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp, Belgium), and the Tate Gallery Collection (London, UK).
